10 signs your Mental Illness is Made up for Attention

https://anongalactic.com/10-signs-yo...for-attention/

What does everyone think of this article? I know I have mental illness but I fit some of these. Does that mean I am making things worse for myself? Does it make me a bad person? Or is this article just stupid? #10 I find offensive. I do have OCD so maybe I just obsess over my mental illnesses?

I don't think it's even worth to read. Mental illness is complicated and even though two people have the same diagnosis their symptoms might be different. Psychiatrists went to college etc for years to be able to give a correct diagnosis, and even so misdiagnosis still happens often. Personally, I don't think a single article written not by an expert listing this and that about mental illness should be our reference in understanding our illness.

Anyway, you do have OCD, so obsessing over your mental illness is not something that should be called "just obsess". OCD is a serious mental illness like any other illness. So I don't think you are making things worse, more like (maybe, since I am not an expert) your OCD caused all of this and that is not your fault. At all. Just an opinion

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense actually.

from the article
I wanted to include the above quote from the article to point out the author is NOT saying all people with mental illness do these things. That said...
I agree with the premise that SOME people use mental illness as an attention seeking thing. My work is with primarily with teens and pre-teens. In some circles it is the cool thing to have a mental illness. The current popular diagnosis tends to change over time. A couple of years ago it seemed like half the kids we saw were self-diagnosed with DID.

The author's tone is awfully harsh, but he makes a good point the people he is criticizing make a mockery of those who truly struggle with mental illness.

Ack. I do a number of these things, or used to. THe one about depression meaning anything from "unable to get out of bed" to "just wanting to stay in and do nothing" to being perfectly functional is exactly what I experience. Same with the jab at "upper-middle-class anxiety," dammit, I have enough guilt.

I think time span can play a big part in mental illness "reality" though. Feeling consistently sad, angry, hopeless, and worthless for half your life is not normal; low periods corresponding to parts of life are.

Though, I've wondered before if I really am faking or exaggerating my mental issues to feel like I exist, like there's a Me somewhere in there.

Not sure what the sexuality thing is about, either.

i think it's a load of crap.

mentally ill or not, i think their's a lot on that list that people can relate to

okay.. so perhaps their's a bit of sense in number 5, i'm not sure- even then it could just be coincidence

Funny thing about #5 is sometimes I am able to be less depressed if I have something to look forward to. I don't "choose" to put it aside, but sometimes it puts itself aside.

What do I think of this "article"? As little as possible. In fact, I think it was mostly made up for attention.

why would all of these diseases and meds and treatment centers etc etc just be made up for only money? I think money and the money doctors prescribing us is a huge reason why some of us might believe its made up for attention, but i sure dont. I wouldnt wish this upon anyone or their families. IT IS HELL when youre depressed or manic not attention seeking. i dont tell anyone anymore if i am depressed or manic not worth it. i would rather sit through the pain in silence and have my parents stay away than act like they care. have someone take a walk in my shoes and then lets revisit that article, Mr big shot Author

Oh, I never thought of that. I like it.

There are people who label themselves ( and they are not all teenagers)and use it to get special attention and as an excuse not to take responsibility for their own actions. They piss me off.

I didn't think it is so dried and cut as the author stated. I think some of them though do have a personality disorder ( undiagnosed, it gets hard to diagnose the real problem when people label themselves and look up symptoms of other illnesses to tell professionals) and that's a mental illness, it just needs a different kind of help.

Yeah, I agree that the author makes it seem obvious. You're right, making up illnesses is probably an illness in itself.

It's not completely useless, at lease it point out common mistakes you do every day.

I very much dislike that woman, and don't ever listen to her. I personally believe the author makes things up
herself.
She has a tube channel that is very attention seeking and not scientific.

I agree with Onward.

The article reminded me of Tomi Lahren. I could blame your Google, or some other site where the link is originated from. In a way, kids these days are smart and know how things work, it doesn't mean the platforms they are using are speaking what we need to be listening to.

Google results aren't making me smart, allowing me to find things worth reading/watching, it's just sad. Please don't let it bother for your own sake.

i like onward too.now nobody knows-coincidence or not too?

I've seen a couple of her YouTube videos, I personally think she's a "know it all" type, idk I just don't like her and find her annoying. Yeah people may make things up for attention, but she goes to far with her video and now this article, so now anyone who reads the article or watches her video on the topic will now feel like they can determine who does it doesn't have mental illness just based off of a video and mot being a professional, which in my opinion is not a good thing, and could possibly be dangerous.

And on a personal level she has now made me very paranoid that all I am is an "attention seeker" all because I can relate to a fee things on that stupid list. For me this is dangerous cause I'm prone to not complying with treatment if I feel I have nothing wrong with me when in fact I do. So yeah, I really think this article and her video of the same topic do a great disservice to the mental health community, especially since she herself is not a professional.

And like I said I'm not oblivious to the fact people have made things up for attention before, I just think it should be left to a professional to decide who is and isn't making things up... Hope this made some sense.

From the title, I was looking forward to reading this...

Then, not so much.

It just seemed like venting to me.

Her picture is very distracting. Did she draw her eyebrows with a Sharpie?

I couldn't make it all the way through the article.

LOL, that author needs a good spanking.

I feel a bit better now I see the majority of commenters in the original page calling out the article as either flawed or <expletives deleted>.

The author of the article is not the young woman depicted at the top of the page. This photo likely depicts the author's concept of an attention seeker or a "special snowflake". The author's photograph is posted near the bottom. He is a male called Malcolm. The author states "Politics is my fortay"; apparently spelling is not.

Just the whole premise- if someone would purposely act like they have a MI to get attention, then they have an unhealthy need for attention, or way of getting attention. Is that a MI in itself? It's an oxymoron.

We've probably all wondered if we purposely bring it on ourselves for the sake of manipulation, to get what we want. Maybe we are trying to get out of doing something we don't want to do, so the MI acts up to get us out of doing the task... Like work.

There's that element of 'self sabotage' that I am now aware of having done.

But, who would want to have a MI? Who would purposely do it?

I wish I could be healthy, normal, get along. I wish I could turn it off and just be normal.

I never got good attention from this. Who wants to be difficult?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malingering

Malingering is fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of "secondary gain" motives, which may include financial compensation (often tied to fraud); avoiding school, work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences; or simply to attract attention or sympathy.

Thanks jimi - I needed that laugh.

When I started to read the article I didn't understand it until I got to the very last part when the author wrote - "Mental illness is serious, if you have to pretend to be mentally ill to get “likes” you are just an idiot. People like these take the stigma away from mental illnesses and make it seem trivial".

It would seem in a very round bout way that the author does understand the seriousness of mental illness and is telling others to stop trivializing it.